


You and Me and the Devil Makes Three

by starlabsforever



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Gen, Mentioned Character Death, speculation on savitar's prophecy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-31
Updated: 2017-01-31
Packaged: 2018-09-21 04:12:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9530963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlabsforever/pseuds/starlabsforever
Summary: Cisco doesn't know how they ended up like this, staring each other down through the glass wall of the pipeline. All he knows is that he'll never give up on Caitlin- he can't, even if he really should. A possible outcome of Savitar's prophecy.





	

"Missed me, huh?" Caitlin said as the pipeline doors slid open. Cisco stepped forward silently and opened the tray slot.

"I brought you a burger," he said quietly. He shoved the brown paper bag through and Caitlin darted forward. Cisco yanked his hand back, like he'd been burned, and staggered backwards. Caitlin smirked and picked up the bag.

"Why so nervous? You know I'm not going to hurt you, Cisco." Her voice bit at him like the freezing winter wind whipping against his cheeks. "I would have done that a long time ago if I was going to."

Cisco leaned against the wall and turned his head to watch her. "I know."

"So why are you so scared of me?" Caitlin asked, unwrapping the foil around the burger. She tilted her head and smiled, and the glint of malice in her eyes made him feel icy all over. "It's just me. Just because I'm a little-" She waved a hand, and frost misted off of her hand. "-colder than I used to be doesn't mean that things have to change between us."

Oh, how he wished that were true. And yeah, part of him was desperately trying to believe that things would be okay, that they could somehow get back to some skewed definition of normal. He watched as Caitlin lifted up the sesame bun and peered under it to make sure that they left off the pickles. That was the worst part of all of this- she may be icy and homicidal and terrifying, but she was still so _Caitlin._ Caitlin who still managed to keep her hair looking nice from inside the pipeline, Caitlin who hated pickles on her burgers. Caitlin who could pierce his heart and lower his defenses in a moment, which was why he had to be careful. He stood up and turned to face her.

"I'm not scared of you," he said firmly. "I could never be. I think you're afraid of yourself."

She glowered at him. "You're pathetic," she spat, and her words dug into his chest, clawing at his heart.

"I may be pathetic, but I'm not wrong.” He folded his arms across his chest, hoping that it would help him feel more resolute- power stances and all. “You _are_ afraid."

She raised an eyebrow. "Please, tell me more," she said dryly, and took a bite of the burger.

It was all he could do to maintain eye contact- her eyes scared him. They were so... empty and unfeeling, but they still looked like Caitlin. Probing, testy, and completely unimpressed with the quality of the burger he’d brought her. It scared him, but it also gave him hope- he had to believe that she was still enough Caitlin that he could get through to her. It was a long shot, but hope was the thing with feathers, so he had to try.

"You're hiding," he said quietly. "When you first got your powers, you wanted to leave before you could hurt anybody. But you did, so that's kind of a moot point. So since you can't run... you're hiding. You couldn't beat her, so you joined her."

She laughed unpleasantly. "You would love that, wouldn't you? Underneath the frozen, brittle, murderous surface, scared little Caitlin Snow is still in there somewhere." She stepped forward, and her face was so close to the glass that the spot in front of her lips misted over. "And then you drill through the ice with a jackhammer and save poor little Caitlin and you get your happy ending." She slammed her fist against the glass and he jumped, but kept his feet planted. "I stopped being afraid a long time ago. I'm way past the point of saving."

He felt his stomach twist, and the words fell out of his mouth like a hot bubble exploding. "I can't accept that," he blurted. "It's not true. You're still you."

"I'm not," she spat, and the cold surety of her voice made his heart sink. She cocked her head quizzically. "You of all people should know that. You thought I could be saved once... so you let me out. I think I more than proved you wrong."

His head throbbed threateningly. His Vibe powers had made him more susceptible to traumatic flashbacks, but he didn't need powers to see the horrific scene every time he closed his eyes. His head seared with pain as the memories seized his mind- Julian's body convulsing on the floor, Caitlin's hands pressed against his chest as every muscle in his body seized up and froze. Julian had just enough time to round his lips into a plea for mercy before Caitlin leaned in and administered her kiss of death. Cisco raced to stop her, but he was too late, he was always too late…

He realized that he was on the ground, clutching his head in his hands. Caitlin had stepped closer to the glass wall and her lips were curled into a malevolent smile, like she was reveling in his distress. "Just think, if you had left me in my cage, turned your back on me, then the rest of the team would still be together. You would still have your little crackpot band of white hats, your dysfunctional superhero family. But you couldn't do that, because you're not cold like I am. You care too much. That's always been your downfall, and someday it'll be your destruction." She chuckled darkly. "Or maybe it already has."

He grasped at the wall and staggered to his feet. "I'm not going to give up on you!" He blurted out, and the words tumbled from his mouth in a desperate cry. "Letting you out of the pipeline was a mistake, but I refuse to believe that Caitlin is all gone."

"Who said she was gone?" She opened her fist and pressed her fingers against the glass. Ribbons of ice spiraled out from her fingertips. "I know you'd love to believe that this is a Jekyll and Hyde deal, that if you get through to Caitlin, she can block out Killer Frost." He ducked his head so that she couldn't tell from his eyes that that was exactly what he'd been hoping. "I'm afraid it's not that linear. I'm Caitlin, but stronger. Better. Colder. You can't have one or the other. Killer Frost and Caitlin Snow are one in the same."

Cisco shrugged. "Then I guess I'm going to be buying a lot of burgers in the future." He dropped his arms to his side and stepped forward, inches away from the glass. "I'm not giving up you, Caitlin. I'm never giving up on you. I think that's what scares you." He moved forward again, and they were close enough to touch, save for the glass. "It would be easier for you. If I gave up on you, you could freeze your heart over permanently. As long as I'm here, some small part of you is fighting the ice. You can’t let go because part of you still cares about me.”

She stared back at him, and for just a fleeting second, he thought he saw her silver-blue eyes flash back to brown, but now the icy sheen over her irises seemed even more opaque than before. "Maybe so. But I'm never going to let it win," she said, her diction hard and dangerously precise. "I'm not broken and you know what they say about fixing what isn't broken. So just let me go. Don't waste your time and energy trying to talk me down, because you'll never succeed. Let me out and I'll-"

"-and you'll leave us alone." Cisco crossed his arms again. It was a protective stance, not a powerful one. "Funny, I've heard that before."

She scowled. "I was going to say put you out of your misery. You wish you were dead, don't you?" He bowed his head quickly, but the pained look in his eyes must have betrayed his silence, because she smirked. "I thought so. That's why you're clinging to me. I'm the one sliver of hope left in the shambles of your life that you ruined." Her words stung and he staggered back. "They won't say it, but they're never going to forgive you. The team, I mean. They may let you hang around and build things for them, but they're never going to trust you. You put all of your faith in me when you let me go, and it blew up in your face and everybody else got caught in the crossfire. That's why you can't give up on me now, because if you do, that means you lost the rest of your friends for nothing."

"That’s not why." Cisco raised his head and held her gaze. "I can't give up on you because even after what you did, you're still my friend.” She was more than that, she was everything… “What you did was awful and unpardonable, but that’s on you. If I turn my back on you, that’s on me. I’m not gonna let this one be on me.”  

She snorted derisively. “You seriously think we’re _friends?”_

The disgust in her voice stung him, but he shook it off. “You’re right. We’re not friends. We’re family.” He said the word deliberately, and she almost winced. "Family doesn't quit on each other."

Caitlin rolled her eyes. "STAR Labs forever?" She said derisively.

He turned to leave. "Yep."

"There's one problem with that." Her voice stopped him in his tracks, as if they'd frozen him. "You're the only one that still believes in Team Flash. Everyone else gave up when you let me out and I killed Julian."

He clenched his fists and felt the muscles in his arms tensing. "That's not true."

"It is, and you know it. That's why you're the optimist. But you and I got it right the first time, Cisco." Her words cut into his skin like tiny slivers of ice. "Some things that are broken can't be fixed."

He turned around to face her, trying to hide how wounded he felt. "I thought you said you weren't broken," he said with a defiance that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

"I'm not." She leaned against the glass lazily. "They are. You tore them apart because you couldn't let me go. You should have, you know.”

Cisco stepped forward cautiously and rested his arm against the wall. “So, what,” he said slowly, “you think I should have just left you here to rot?” He tilted his head inquisitively. “Do you hate yourself that much, Caitlin?”

Her eyes flickered brown again and for a second, he could see something in them- Pain? Fear? Regret? -but it vanished just as suddenly is it had appeared. Her fingers clenched, pressing indents into the half-eaten burger. “I’m fine with who I am,” she said coldly. “Not all of us have such low self-esteem that we have to beg murderers to be our friends.”

It hurt- but it sounded like something Caitlin would say. Because this was Caitlin. She was still Caitlin.

“Look me in the eye,” he said quietly, and she raised an eyebrow. He raised his voice. “Look me in the eye and tell me that you don’t care about me.”

“I don’t care about you,” she spat, and he felt like he’d been punched in the chest. These words weren’t slivers cutting into him- this was blunt force trauma. She crushed the burger in her hand and tossed it to the ground. “I could care less about all of you. You can rot in hell, Cisco Ramon.”

He whirled around so that she wouldn’t see the pain on his face. "I'll see you tomorrow,” he mumbled, and began walking quickly.

"Yeah, because your little speeches will work then," she yelled. He pressed his hand against the lock and the pipeline doors whirred shut. He leaned back against them and slumped to the ground. His head dropped to his knees and he realized that he was trembling.

That wasn’t Caitlin, he told himself. Was it more or less painful to believe that she was completely gone? Was it worse to believe that she could never be redeemed, or worse to believe that Caitlin was at the wheel when she murdered Julian?

He pressed a hand against his frantically pulsating heart and took deep, deliberate inhales. He needed to calm down. If he had another panic attack outside of the pipeline, Barry might forbid him from visiting Caitlin altogether, and he couldn't bear the idea of never seeing her again. Besides, someone had to bring her food. The rest of the team was too afraid and angry to go anywhere near her cell. They let Cisco do it, because, well, they all kept their distance from him. Because… they didn’t trust him. The realization hit him like a cold stone in his stomach.

Savitar's voice flashed through his head: _One will betray. One will fall. One will suffer a fate worse than death._ He'd thought the prophecy had been realized weeks ago, but everything was grayer these days. Was Caitlin the traitor, or was he? Was hers the fate worse than death, or was his?

Caitlin was right. He almost wished he were in Julian's place. Almost. But he didn’t want to die, because there were things worth living for still. Things worth fighting for.

Cisco Ramon was not a quitter. He didn’t give up. Not on himself, not on the team, and certainly not on Caitlin.

He rose to his feet and headed back to the Cortex.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are hugs.


End file.
